Teachers

Jennifer Gaden LNATD

Jenny has been passionate about all things theatre, since she first stepped out on stage as a 4 year old dancing snowflake in the SnowQueen 1948 with Cirencester Ballet Club. She was then nurtured and trained under Lydia Kyasht Jnr and successfully qualified with the National Association of Teachers of Dancing as a teacher of Classical Ballet in 1984.

Jenny began teaching for the Club in 1991 and co-choreographed various performances for both shows and exams, including Cinderella 1994 and Coppelia 1996. When the Club reformed as Cirencester Dance Club two years later she was happy to remain as the sole teacher, providing tap and jazz classes as well as ballet.

Jenny enjoys working closely with students of all ages, developing confidence and ability, through class work, choreography, exams and performance. She finds it most thrilling to involve every student in Club Shows and seeing them work together and being inspired by each other to create something unique.

As well as her love of dancing, Jenny’s other grand passion is singing and musical theatre. She is an active long-standing member of Cirencester Operatic Society, both on and off stage and has taken various leading roles but Sally Bowles in Cabaret and Hattie in Follies remains her favourites.

Adding another string to her bow, Jenny qualified as a Pilates Instructor in 2006 and runs regular classes at Ingleside House, Cirencester. She finds the Pilates synergies intriguing and that it compliments her ballet greatly.

Jenny is committed to helping each student achieve their potential, keeping them active and healthy and providing a safe, disciplined environment in which to have fun whilst learning new skills.

Her life mantra is Carpe Diem (Seize the Day) which keeps her motivated and on her toes!

Charlotte Henson

Charlotte started dancing at the age of 3 and has danced almost every day of the week from then on. Joining performing groups, summer schools and festivals through her years of training. She successfully auditioned for the Youth Dance Talent Course at the age of 13 and has been taught by likes of Royston Maldoom, Anne Went, Banxy, Yvonne Evans (Voyd), Adele Thompson as well as having master classes by the top London ballet academies and danced along side people that became famous like Billie Piper.

Charlotte starred in an advertising campaign which appeared in national newspapers and billboards shown as a deaf ballerina, filmed as a duet to Lionel Ritchie’s Ballerina Girl which was broadcast on tv, performed a dance routine on the CBBC programme called The Lowdown and was a backing dancer for a dance video which appeared on MTV.

Her love in dance has always been teaching since starting to teach at the age of 13 in Bath, taking warm-up exercises and slowly progressing onto taking an entire dance class.

Charlotte joined Cirencester Ballet Club at 13 alongside her dancing in Bath to gain performance experience, additional techniques and styles.

She trained at the Royal Academy of Dance teacher training centre in Bristol and then at the RAD Headquarters in London to obtain her teaching qualifications.

Charlotte had her own successful dance school and built the pupil numbers to over 200 before taking 5 years away from teaching to start her own family.

Charlotte is very excited to return to teaching dance again and to teach at Cirencester Dance Club, a club she enjoyed as a child.

Sian Davis

Sian began dancing with Jenny at Cirencester Dance Club in 1996. She danced in various different shows ranging from Cinderella to La Sylphide, where she played her favourite role of the witch ‘Madge’. She also took part in ballet exams where she finished at intermediate foundation.

In 2010, Sian joined Swindon College where she completed her dance BTEC receiving a distinction. During her time at college, Sian continued to dance at the club and even began helping Jenny with choreographing. She would quite often join Jenny on a Saturday helping with the younger dancers in the club, knowing that working with children was something she wanted to continue in the future.

In 2012, Sian left Cirencester and the club to study at university where she trained to become a primary school teacher. In 2015, she graduated which led her to work in a primary school teaching year 5 and 6, which is something she’s still doing today. Her passion for dance is still very current and she continues to teach and drive dance forward in the school she teaches in.

Sian is very excited to be joining the club again but this time in a different role, teaching senior Modern and Contemporary/Lyrical classes on a Tuesday evening.

Marie-Louise Flexen

Currently Marie-Louise dances on projects with Swerve Dance Theatre, a profes-sional contemporary dance company, based at Swindon Dance. She is choreogra-pher and core performer with Curious Company, who make themed and beautifully costumed shows for events, festivals, private functions and high profile clients. Her vintage song and dance double act, The Mary Lou Revue, is hugely popular and has gained a reputation as being highly engaging, top class entertainment for a broad audience.

Previously Marie-Louise danced with the all female tap company Sole Rebel Tap over a period of five years, touring three different shows across the UK. Between 1994 and 2002, she performed with internationally renowned dance company, Se-ven Sisters Group, who’s groundbreaking site-specific productions ran at The Royal Opera House, Royal Festival Hall, The National Theatre, St Pancreas Chambers, V&A Museum, Selfridges, The Place Theatre and train stations across Europe.

She then spent a few years in Girona, dancing with ‘off the wall’ Catalan company El Paller, while working extensively as a freelance performer for independent chore-ographers, including the renowned Yael Flexer of Bedlam Dance.

Her work in the corporate entertainment sector has taken her far afield to clients in the UK and abroad, including BBC, Harrods, Harvey Nichols, Pierre Cardin, Star Cruises Asia to name a few. She has entertained at a host of celebrity events, par-ties, award ceremonies, film premieres and music concerts.

As a child, Marie-Louise attended dance classes with her mother Ethna Flexen and with Cirencester Dance Club. She went on to train at Swindon Dance and London Contemporary Dance School where she won a scholarship to California Institute of the Arts. Marie-Louise received a Dance UK Award for inspiring dance leader of the future in 2015. She was a finalist in major contemporary choreography award The Place Prize in 2005 and nominated for a Total Theatre Award 2007. She created Arts Council funded projects and gained many dance commissions for a range of exciting collaborations and productions of her own between 2004 and 2014.

She now teaches a range of dance styles including contemporary, ballet, tap and vintage dance. Marie-Louise has many years experience of leading inclusive dance practice and has become a positive voice for disability dance. She also works as a dance movement specialist in care homes.

Marie-Louise will be heading up our performance contemporary group and also offering lots of different workshops over the year.

Marta Leskard

Marta’s first solo performance at the age of 11 (she sang ‘Lili Marlene’, wearing a slouch hat and trench coat) hooked her to theatre and her passion has never waned. She spent every summer of her formative years attending theatre school (Carousel Theatre School, Vancouver) and her out of school hours were crammed with music lessons, script writing, set building, prop making and, of course, rehearsing and performing. Much to everyone’s shock, when Marta went on to university, she chose not to go into theatre but followed another path – several paths, in the end – all which have led her to her present occupation, working for the Science Museum. But she continued to take acting, singing and dancing lessons and to work both on- and off-stage, for professional and amateur organisations, in every available spare moment. Marta has done radio, television and film as well as stage; on stage she has had roles in everything from musical theatre and opera to Shakespeare and pantos. Off-stage, she has designed and made costumes and props, designed, constructed and painted sets and even been stage manager for the club for Narnia!

Marta’s obsession has extended to her family with her son, whose first stage role at the age of 4 was as a Munchkin in the Wiz, now a professional actor and her niece, who at 3 opened Act III of La Bohème, now completing her union credentials in the film industry.

Marta is now very excited to have the opportunity to share her experiences, training, skills and knowledge with the students of the Cirencester Dance Club by teaching our Theatre Skills class on Saturday afternoon.

Astrid Ocariz

Astrid is a Venezuelan dance teacher, choreographer and performer based in the UK since August 2015. She started her dance career in Venezuela while she was a teenager and had her first contact with Middle Eastern Dance. Since then, she has been training in different dance styles such as Latin-american dance, Jazz, Ballet and Contemporary dance but keeping her main focus in different styles of bellydance.

Astrid studied ballet and contemporary dance in a recognised university in Caracas, Venezuela, Instituto Universitario de Danza. At the same time she studied to become a French language teacher in a Pedagogic University in Caracas, Venezuela. This is where she discovered her passion for teaching. Lastly in August 2017, she became certified as an American Tribal Style Bellydance Teacher by Caroleena Nericcio-Bohlman and Megha Galvin in Southend-on-sea, UK.

Astrid has over 6 years of performing dance experience in her own country and has gain valuable teaching experience, which includes an apprenticeship with Marie-Louise as a teaching assistant, other teaching assistant positions, teacher cover and as a main teacher in various dance schools in the UK since 2016. Astrid believes that the learning process must be achieved by the creation of the right atmosphere, memories and feelings. This is made by finding a balance between enjoyment and technique whilst students are being encouraged to be part of a family where every member loves dance just like them!